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FROGWARD HO! turned 8 today!

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Orchids Galore!

We recently returned to the Isle of Jersey (two hours from our place, ferry ride included) - during our stay there we visited the extraordinary Eric Young Orchid Foundation.  We felt like sharing some of its beauty.

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¡ Que viva España!

We’re just back from our annual Spring road trip and thought we’d share a few of our favorite photos from our travels to Spain and the southeastern part of France.  Our first day took us to Bordeaux, a city that, oddly enough, we’d never visited before.  

One of the ancient gates of the city, followed by a more modern vista with a Jaume Plensa head.

The pet names the French and English have for each other:

A little street art whimsy

From Bordeaux we drove down and across the border into Spain and made our way to Burgos. Our hotel was across the plaza from the cathedral - great view for breakfast!

A little summary of the Burgos cathedral interior

A couple of sights of Burgos by night:

Arco de Santa Maria, a medieval city gate (includes a statue of El Cid)

As a bonus, we have a photo of Phil discovering what real Spanish hot chocolate and churros are all about!

More street art?

Our next stop after Burgos was Toledo, in Castilla La Mancha.  The steep narrow streets were real nail biters, and we crept along sometimes holding our breath with side mirrors folded in.  

Seriously!

The fabulous cathedral - 

The cloister and its orange trees

 Renaissance and Baroque delirium within the cathedral 

An opening to heaven!

a glimpse of the Alcazar

Toledo by night

The “mudejar “ or Moorish or Islamic style is everywhere - It is gorgeous - remember that Spain was under Moslem rule for 800 years. 

From Toledo, we headed south to the marvelous city of Granada.  There our hotel was in a house dating from the 14th Century,  located in the Albaicin quarter, on a hill across the famous Alhambra fortress/palace.  We were able to walk everywhere in town, or take the crazy city minibuses zooming downhill through the nerve-wrackingly narrow streets. 

Ah...finally it feels like we’re on vacation!

Having drinks on a terrace overlooking the Alhambra as the sun is setting

A street along the cathedral - shades of Mexico City on the left!

Inside one of Granada’s university buildings, this mudejar jewel

The Royal chapel, containing the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, and Juana la Loca (sorry no photos of the inside are allowed)

Along the walls of the Alhambra

This is the Albaicin quarter seen from the Alhambra.  

We even attended an outstanding Flamenco performance one evening.  Great guitar player! The dancers were excellent, so was the singer. Olé!

More weird street art...

Adios, Granada! This next photo is the essence of the Granada experience....

Our next stop on the long trip back was Cordoba with its eye-popping Mesquita/Catedral (mosque/cathedral), and its charming old walled city.  

Crossing the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir river (the mosque/cathedral is on the right)

One of the lovely old streets in question.

The central garden of the mosque/cathedral

An astoundingly magnificent and peaceful place in spite of the agitation outside:

pure mudejar style 

Along the outside walls of the Mezquita Catedral

Still heading north, we stopped for the night in Cacerés in Extramadura, a little off the beaten track. The walled city is a world heritage site.

From the other side of the gate at night

There is a lovely Parador in Tordesillas, so we decided to check out the town that was once the capital of Castile when Juana la Loca was queen.  This now small town is the  site of the 1494 Treaty dividing up the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal under the aegis of the Spanish Pope Alexander Vi Borgia (Borja).  You’ll see that represented in some of the outstanding educational murals/street art there.

most of the tallest buildings in the city sport stork nests - at the time of the photos it was stork siesta time.

Our last stop in Spain was another of the lovely Paradorés, former castles, fortresses, manors, etc...  turned into hotels and run by the Spanish government.  

A quick shopping stop (cured meats, Arbequina olive oil and Idazabal cheese) in Bilbao on the Spain side of the Basque country (we’d already visited the Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum there a few years back)....

Then back into the French Basque country for two windy days in Biarritz,  where we visited our cousins.

Without forgetting the city’s market and this nifty seafood display

Our last night on the road was spent in beautiful La Rochelle (about 3 hours from home) where we successfully sought out the memorable Thai restaurant we had discovered six years earlier.  What a trip!  

The famous towers of La Rochelle :

The streets with their 16th century arches, by day and by night

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FROGWARD HO! turned 7 today!

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Down to the Alps

I know that seems odd, but in fact, the French Alps are south of our home in Brittany.  We were going to the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in the Haute Savoie, so decided to spend a couple of days in Combloux before heading to the festival. 

Our first stop was Montluçon, in the Center of France, where we had a remarkably tasty dinner of Mexican quesadillas and tacos, prepared by a woman and her son from Xalapa, Noëlle’s favorite town in Mexico.  

What a surprise!  I think it might have even given Noëlle happy feet.  

The views of the Alps from our B&B in Combloux were spectacular, as you can see.  Even the view from our room, and the table where we had breakfast and dinner.  

A little stroll down the mountain lane led us to these views of the Mont Blanc.  Wow.

The next morning we drove down the mountain from Combloux to the town of Cordon, reputed to have the finest views of the Mont Blanc.  In Cordon we came across a gem of Alpine Baroque architecture and decoration at the church there.  If you look closely at the “statues” on the outside of the church, you’ll see that they are actually three dimensional cutouts...something we’d never seen before.  

The interior of the church is delirious, and had been sumptuously restored a couple of years ago.  What a feast for the eyes.  Love those little cherub heads!

After the church came the views of the Mont Blanc.  They weren’t lying!  

The front door of the church in Domany.  

The festival in La Roche was great, especially Molly Tuttle, a young singer from California/Nashville who won Guitar Player of the Year at the 2017 International Bluegrass Music Awards.  She sings as well as she plays, too!  Our other favorites were a wild and crazy male/female - guitar/mandolin duo, Duo Ro, from Russia, whose high-octane classically-influenced bluegrass lit up the show.  The Texas Swing-Manouche Jazz band, Gypsy Cattle Drive was thrilling, too!  Ditto for the Italian band, Red Wine, who celebrated their 40 years together at the festival.  They’re all worth checking out.

After a brief stop in Semur-en-Auxois, we headed home.  The weather had been hotter than blue blazes (95º-99º) but luckily the temperatures would dip down to the 60′s at night, plus half our hotel rooms were air conditioned, so we didn’t suffer from the heat.  Still, it was nice to get back to more reasonable temps in the 70′s in Brittany. 

Two of Semur’s gates and the 13th/14th century Church, all in pure Burgundian style. 

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The Well of Moses

This was created by sculptor Claus Suter and his nephew in 1403 as part of a calvary (the upper part collapsed in the 18th century)  at the Charterhouse of Champmol in Dijon, Burgundy; it is actually  located in a well, and depicts Moses and other prophets.

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Jersey!

The isle of Jersey, one of the Channel or Anglo-Norman islands, part of the UK is only a 90 minute ferry ride from Saint Malo, a total two hours from our house.

We visited friends in Jersey for a couple of days, and here’s what we saw:

Approaching Saint Helier on the ferry from France

Mont Orgueil  and its Castle

Endless beaches for kite surfing...

Good bye, Jersey!

Return to Saint-Malo

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Climbing Roses

In homage to the “joli mois de mai” (lovely month of May), here are a few of the climbing roses we noticed in our village and around our immediate area. The flowering peak was reached in mid to late May. Enjoy!

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Let’s go to the Loire Valley!

We decided on a short jaunt to the Loire Valley to escape the end of winter doldrums, and meet friends for some tourism and good company in the Loire Valley (about 3 hrs away)

We met with our friends at the Abbey of Fontevraud. The Abbey has a long history and was the necropolis of the early Plantagenet kings. Fontevraud became a prison from 1814 to 1963; it is now open to the public.

The apse of the Abbey church

The nave with the Plantagenet graves: Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, their son Richard the Lion Hearted and his wife Isabelle

Isabella of Angoulême (wife of King John “Lackland”) and Richard the Lion-Hearted

Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England

Detail from one of the columns in the nave.

The main cloister.

An inside view of the main cloister

The funny-looking building used to be the nun’s kitchen/smokehouse, where the salmon of their Loire river fisheries were processed - even the main cone is a chimney. 

A secondary cloister, now housing a very nice hotel/restaurant

We spent the night in Langeais, on the Loire - this is the town’s castle

Our evening pre-dinner stroll took us to this spot on the Indre river - pretty high and agitated...

The small town of Azay by night...

The next day took us to the fortress of Chinon.  For the French, Chinon is one of the places associated with the history of Joan of Arc, as it is in its walls that she met the dauphin (future king Charles VII) for the first time.

What’ s left of the main palace house.

A closer view, with a plaque commemorating the 1429 meeting of Joan of Arc and the future king.

One of main towers (the Clock Tower) overlooking the city of Chinon and the Vienne river (a tributary of the Loire).

View from the terrace

Hope you like narrow winding stairs!

More fortress shots

The clock tower again (yes, it’s Phil!)

Behind the fortress, one of the many Chinon wineries.

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Rough sea + Zoey, no filter/Zoey et la mer agitée.

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Russia in  Paris (The new Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity) in my old neighborhood in the 7th arrondissement.

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Toujours magnifique, la plage des Grèves d'en bas près du Cap Fréhel! Our ever more beautiful favorite beach at low tide

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Evening walk in Northwestern Brittany/Vue de notre promenade en fin de journée (Phare De L'ile Vierge/Finistère Nord)

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Happy Halloweenie!